State Digest

STATE DIGEST

Judge Catherine Curran O'Malley was taken to the hospital yesterday after she reported feeling faint at a benefit luncheon she attended with her husband, Gov. Martin O'Malley.

Rick Abbruzzese, a spokesman for the governor, said the first lady was making remarks at the annual luncheon for House of Ruth, a Baltimore nonprofit group that helps victims of domestic violence, when she began to feel lightheaded and experienced trouble breathing. She was taken to the emergency room at University of Maryland Medical Center, which is a few blocks from M&T Bank Stadium, where the luncheon was taking place. The governor accompanied her.

Abbruzzese said doctors administered tests and that the first lady is "feeling fine and resting well." She was expected to stay in the hospital overnight for evaluation.

Katie O'Malley, 44, is a District Court judge in Baltimore and the daughter of former state Attorney General J. Joseph Curran Jr. Tim Russert, the moderator of NBC's Meet the Press, was the featured speaker at the charity luncheon.

Andrew A. Green

Montgomery Co.

: Germantown

Father pleads to firearms charge

The father of the boy who police said brought a gun to a day care center and shot another child pleaded guilty Monday to firearms charges.

John L. Hall Sr., 57, admitted to possession of a firearm as a convicted felon. Circuit Judge Eric M. Johnson imposed the mandatory sentence of five years in prison.

County police said Hall's 8-year-old son brought a .38-caliber revolver to the For Kids We Care center in Germantown on Jan. 24 last year and accidentally shot a 7-year-old girl in the arm.

Prosecutors said Hall kept the gun and bullets in a closet to which the boy had access. They believe the child put the gun into his backpack.

Hall also pleaded guilty to assault in an unrelated case stemming from an April 14, 2006, confrontation with a former girlfriend. Prosecutors said he yelled at her in front of her apartment building and followed her into the building, where he punched her and slashed her with a knife. The woman was not seriously injured. Hall was given a 10-year suspended sentence in the assault case.

Associated Press

Washington Co.

: Hagerstown

More immigrants due in area

A refugee resettlement program that has brought more than 200 Russian and African immigrants to Hagerstown since 2005 will add about 200 people from Myanmar to the area over the next 18 months, the program's local coordinator said yesterday.

The Virginia Council of Churches, based in Richmond, plans to bring about 100 Myanmar refugees to the Western Maryland city by Sept. 30, and another 100 by Sept. 30 next year, said George H. Miller, the coordinator of the council's Hagerstown office.